Okay. What about the elephant in the room?

[Rams43]

That's right. The Wade D...

[www.nfl.com]

Where to start?

Allowed 39 points.

Allowed 332 yards passing.

Allowed 113 yards rushing.

Allowed 25 first downs.

Allowed 9/18 (50%) 3rd down efficiency.

Allowed 2/3 ( 67%) 4th down efficiency.

Allowed 5/6 RZ efficiency (87%)

To the Niners led by Brian Hoyer? None of the above are misprints, btw.

I mean, WTF?

Our D was dead last in any list of things I thought I needed to worry about come September. But now? Gulp...

 

[OldSchool]

Saying it now! Wade has a chip on his shoulder against Dallas for firing him. The defense comes out and balls in Dallas next Sunday.

 

[leoram]

How we allow teams to regularly complete passes on third and forever baffles me. We just played two OC's who were prepared to exploit Wade's scheme and the Ram's weaknesses at LB.

 

[HellRam]

This is way out there and probably would never happen.

I think the Rams should go back to the 4-3.

Have Longacre, Quinn and Westbrooks at DE. Let Brockers and Donald do their thing inside. This should stabilize the D line better and help with outside contain(where the Rams have been very poor).

This also lets Barron and Ogeltree go back to postions they are more familar with. Then add Hager/Littleton/other, as the additional outside LBer.

IMO this defense was built to be a attcking style D, that was Williams M.O. Lots of misfits and hybrids in this defense to play straight up, which appears to be what Wade is doing. Hopefully they adjust as the season continues, but the personnel does worry me some.

 

[Varg6]

Despite having multiple heart attacks from our poor performance on defense, I still think players are simply acclimating to the new scheme. Not only is it a new coordinator, but we've literally switched from a 4-3 to a 3-4. I don't think that'll ever be a smooth transition, and certainly one that won't be over night. I still have faith, but what concerns me at this point is how quickly will they get it? Despite having a great offense now (still hard to believe, and hard to say), I don't think we have the luxury of having the offense always bail us out. We need a little more balance. We have a lot of talent on D. I think by Week 10, we'll start seeing them dominate the way we're used to. In the mean time, hold onto your hats...

 

[SteezyEndo]

I disagree. The Elephant is a little premature at the moment. If this isnt fixed til after the BYE, then maybe we can call it that.

 

[Ellard80]

One problem is we used to possess dominant pass rushing DE's... that's not really the case right now.

 

[norcalramfan]

I'm seeing too much concern with stripping the ball and not enough good tackling. That 3rd and 17 where the tackler went high and allowed the receiver to duck and get the extra 2 or 3 yards made me crazy. I hope this can be corrected soon, as the offensive line penalties from the first game seem to have been. The other thing that made me crazy was the special teams muffs, fumbles and offsides. Hopefully Bones is reading the riot act to them as well.

 

[Merlin]

I'm so pi$$ed about this defense and how badly they've been playin. But that said, underestimate Wade Phillips at your own risk.

Wade knows what he's doing. He might have to sit some vets. Might have to adjust playing time and snaps. But he is probably going to get this defense rolling to at least a respectable level. It's three games dudes. Let's wait and see how this team grows.

Because the teams that grow through the season are the ones that go to the playoffs.

 

[Rainram]

Saying it now! Wade has a chip on his shoulder against Dallas for firing him. The defense comes out and balls in Dallas next Sunday.

I don't Old School. Love the optimism, but a chip on your shoulder will only take you so far when OLinemen are destroying LBers at the second level regularly. And Dallas can do exactly that.

How we allow teams to regularly complete passes on third and forever baffles me. We just played two OC's who were prepared to exploit Wade's scheme and the Ram's weaknesses at LB.

Dallas is equally built to exploit our weaknesses.

I do like our DLine, don't get me wrong, but they're gonna need some help against Smith, Frederick and Martin. Their OLine is big and athletic. And smart. I do like Donald to have a good game this week though.

I'm curious how many 4-6 and 5-2 formations/schemes we've put out there and how effective they have or have not been. Anyone got insight on that? I wasn't paying a ton of attention to that the last two weeks. I'm curious.

 

[thirteen28]

The only thing I disagree with is the characterization of this as an "elephant in the room", which implies something obvious that nobody is talking about. But yeah, we got problems on D.

 

[Faceplant]

WP sees what we see. He simply has to change the scheme and possibly mix in 4-3 fronts (which I believe he has already) or risk getting gashed more and more as the film gets out there. AO does not look like a 3-4 MLB to me personally. 2018 draft could be very interesting.

 

[Soul Surfer]

This is way out there and probably would never happen.

I think the Rams should go back to the 4-3.

Have Longacre, Quinn and Westbrooks at DE. Let Brockers and Donald do their thing inside. This should stabilize the D line better and help with outside contain(where the Rams have been very poor).

This also lets Barron and Ogeltree go back to postions they are more familar with. Then add Hager/Littleton/other, as the additional outside LBer.

IMO this defense was built to be a attcking style D, that was Williams M.O. Lots of misfits and hybrids in this defense to play straight up, which appears to be what Wade is doing. Hopefully they adjust as the season continues, but the personnel does worry me some.

Technically we do have a 4-3/3-4 hybrid.

They just leave it up to the opposing team to figure out if we're going to bring up an inside or outside linebacker for the fourth D-lineman.

 

[RamFan503]

Our D has problems - obviously. But I'm going to guess that we are going to see some of the substitutions we saw last night become more involved. We still have some young pieces to fit in among players who likely don't really fit their current roles in a 3-4. I'm thinking Barron may end up moving to SS and we put a bigger body next to AO. I also think Quinn needs to either go to a team playing the 4-3 or he is going to have to learn contain from the OLB position and in a hurry. Right now, he just seems to be running around the play like he did his first several games as a rookie.

 

[HellRam]

Technically we do have a 4-3/3-4 hybrid.

They just leave it up to the opposing team to figure out if we're going to bring up an inside or outside linebacker for the fourth D-lineman.

I think scheme wise that's been the popular talking point during the off-season. However you can obviously see a big difference between Williams D and Phillips. Sure some of the gap assignments are the same on the line, but really thats not saying much. This current D is defitnely not a attacking style D. Big difference from what we are use to seeing.

 

[Dieter the Brock]

Of course it's the D

But an alternative White Elephant might be the injured John Sullivan

Austin Blythe - starter.......

 

[wolfdogg]

People, I implore you, put down your torches. Remember, wade did not have the luxury, nay the necessity, of seeing how all his starters would fit best and perform optimally in his PROVEN scheme. How many played in preseason, and together? Even still, they have come up big when needed and the offense put them in a few difficult situations with washington.

They will only get better despite the current injuries which I think have had some effect, FUCKING COUNTESS!

 

[Rabid Ram]

I'm going to say it now it's no elephant. We were all looking at an offense in transition that has seemed to transition way faster then expected. However we spent very little time looking at our 4/3 players transition to a hybrid 3/4. We have been blessed with a way better offense thus far then expected Im positive our d is primarily going through growing pains and will settle down sooner rather then later barring injurys

 

[Dodgersrf]

Our D started off slow when Greg Williams came in also. IIRC, it took about 8-9 games to start clicking.
It looks like guys are lost out there at the moment. They're thinking too much. If you're thinking....you're not playing.

 

[DaveFan'51]

That's right. The Wade D...

[www.nfl.com]

Where to start?

Allowed 39 points.

Allowed 332 yards passing.

Allowed 113 yards rushing.

Allowed 25 first downs.

Allowed 9/18 (50%) 3rd down efficiency.

Allowed 2/3 ( 67%) 4th down efficiency.

Allowed 5/6 RZ efficiency (87%)

To the Niners led by Brian Hoyer? None of the above are misprints, btw.

I mean, WTF?

Our D was dead last in any list of things I thought I needed to worry about come September. But now? Gulp...

R-E-L-A-X!! Wade couldn't do much on a short week between the 'Skins game and the 9er game!!
Now he has 10 days to adjust and prepare for the Cowpie's game!
This week #4 match-up will prove to the World " Yes the Rams are Back, and Playing great in all phases of the game!!